Never would I have guessed

Rumi, Translated by Ali Arsanjani

Never would I have guessed, this adventure could intoxicate me so,
making hell of my heart and turning my eyes into rivers so,
never could I have guessed, that a flood would wipe me away,
casting me mercilessly upon the blood-filled ocean so,

bringing a thunderous wave upon that ship that tore it board by board
that in this relentless whirling, every board would be undone so,
that a giant whale would rise from deep and drink the ocean
never would I have thought an ocean could be swallowed dry like so,
thereafter the desert would swallow the ocean-devouring whale so,
and as with Heron, the desert too, shall be swallowed by wrath divine, like so,
neither desert nor ocean remain, when succeeding transformations whirl so,

What became of Being when it drowned in Nonbeing, I really do not know,
There are many things we know, but I no longer know --
swimming for my life, I must have swallowed foam, the rest I do not know...